INNOVATION SERIES
Driving clean auto design You might think that high-performance super-cars and heavy-duty industrial vehicles have very little in common when it comes to how they are engineered. Mike Keane, founder of Hibra Design, tells us that actually, there are quite a number of similarities. hydrogen fuel cell power system, and then return the vehicle to service for field trials. From there, we can start the process of cleaning up the full fleet.”
“If we consider the specific operational cycles, heavyduty vehicle and supercars typically oscillate between needing high power and torque; and then heavy braking, with very little in between. The supercar requires power and torque for acceleration whereas the industrial vehicle needs it to carry heavy loads” Mike should know. He has had unique career in automotive engineering and has led the development of a number of highperformance vehicles for companies such as Jaguar, Aston Martin and the Williams F1 team, and wide variety of other vehicles such as road cars, competition vehicles, heavy-goods and light-goods vehicle. He now brings that experience to Hibra Design, an automotive development consultancy who specialise in engineering batteryelectric and hydrogen fuel cell solutions for industrial vehicles. Hibra Design works with fleet operators of commercial and industrial vehicle, who require solutions to reduce their operational costs and improve the environmental impact of their vehicles. The Cork-based company firstly assesses the vehicles in operation, recording a
Operation-Specific, VehicleAgnostic is the tag-line the company uses. So what does vehicleagnostic mean?
range of data such as fuel usage, distance covered and running time. This allows them to identify zero-emission solutions and offer their clients a means to decarbonise the fleet. But this is not just a dataanalytics service. Hibra Design provides the turn-key engineering solution as they reengineer the existing vehicles from diesel-power to clean-power. “The key is to develop solutions to suit not just the vehicle but in the context of how the vehicle operates”, he explained. “We work directly with fleet operators of industrial vehicles. Many of these operators are being squeezed between
exponentially-rising fuel costs and ever-increasing amounts of environmental legislation. However, there are very few cleantechnology solutions available on the market. At the same time, they have an existing fleet which is becoming more expensive to run.” “We can offer them both, a plan to decarbonise the fleet which fulfils their CSR (Corporate Sustainability Reporting) requirements and a direct means of reengineering the fleet. Most companies start with a pilot programme of a first vehicle. We take the vehicle, reengineer it with a zeroemission battery electric or
“We work with a range of commercial and industrial vehicles. The power systems we have designed are modular and scalable and can be implemented into a wide variety of vehicles. To give you an example of some of our progammes; we are working on a terminal yard tractor for moving container boxes, an agricultural vehicle for use in very wet conditions and an electric service vehicle which can be used as a mobile retail unit.” This work requires more than just the development of the clean-emission power systems. Hibra Design is firstly an automotive consultancy and can take on all elements of a vehicle programme offering bespoke solutions. To learn more about bespoke solutions for your vehicles visit www.hibra.ie where you can also book a free consultation.
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